Reputation, Partisanship, and Ideology in the Administrative State

In democratic government, elected politicians are accountable to voters for the policies they pass. Policies, however, are administered by bureaucracies with possibly large levels of discretion and different preferences from those of elected politicians. The relationship between elected politicians and unelected bureaucrats is therefore both empirically and normatively important: politicians ought to make sure that their electoral mandate translates into policies; and unelected bodies shall be held accountable by politicians, in order to ensure that the administration of policies remains aligned with the will of government. The interactions between politicians and bureaucracy is a classic topic in political science research. While early work on the study of politicians-bureaucracy interactions considered bureaucracy as a passive actor controlled by politicians, recent advancements in the scholarship have demonstrated how bureaucracies can become autonomous actors able to influence their political masters. In this dissertation I study how reputation, partisanship, and ideology affect two main types of interactions: politicians influencing bureaucracies and bureaucracies influencing politicians. Reputation. The political role of bureaucracies consolidates with theories of bureaucratic reputation, which posit that autonomous policy-making occurs when agencies can build a reputation for uniqueness among multiple audiences. However, the literature lacks a valid measure of reputation that changes over time and across agencies, thus limiting the reach of the theory. In Chapter 1, I introduce a new measure of bureaucratic reputation which applies word-embedding techniques to legislative speeches and show how scholars can now test theories of reputation more rigorously and answer new questions in political science. Partisanship. In the hierarchy of government, politicians are superior to bureaucracies, and they can oversee bureaucracies to ensure they align to politician' directives. However, politicians' control of the bureaucracy is a trade-off which is subject to political constraints. In Chapter 2, I show that partisanship biases legislators' statements about bureaucracy and hinders their ability to hold agencies to account. Ideology. The legitimacy of the political and autonomous role of unelected bureaucrats rest with their ability to produce information that can be used by politicians to reduce uncertainty over policy outcomes. However, information can also be a channel of influence for the bureaucracy. In Chapter 3, I demonstrate how bureaucratic influence in the legislative process -- namely the extent to which legislators use the information produced by bureaucracy -- decreases with ideological divergence between legislators and bureaucratic bodies, and how statutory independence can reduce the salience of the ideological divide between legislators and agencies. These theoretical contributions are combined with methodological advancements that expand the use of computational methods to the study of bureaucracy and politicians. I collect large original data and introduce several innovative techniques to measure bureaucratic reputation, politicians' statements about bureaucracy, and legislators' use of bureaucratic information in the legislative process, showing how these measurement strategies can contribute to classic and new questions about political-administrative interactions

Lifted Variable Elimination for Probabilistic Logic Programming

Lifted inference has been proposed for various probabilistic logical frameworks in order to compute the probability of queries in a time that depends on the size of the domains of the random variables rather than the number of instances. Even if various authors have underlined its importance for probabilistic logic programming (PLP), lifted inference has been applied up to now only to relational languages outside of logic programming. In this paper we adapt Generalized Counting First Order Variable Elimination (GC-FOVE) to the problem of computing the probability of queries to probabilistic logic programs under the distribution semantics. In particular, we extend the Prolog Factor Language (PFL) to include two new types of factors that are needed for representing ProbLog programs. These factors take into account the existing causal independence relationships among random variables and are managed by the extension to variable elimination proposed by Zhang and Poole for dealing with convergent variables and heterogeneous factors. Two new operators are added to GC-FOVE for treating heterogeneous factors. The resulting algorithm, called LP$^2$ for Lifted Probabilistic Logic Programming, has been implemented by modifying the PFL implementation of GC-FOVE and tested on three benchmarks for lifted inference. A comparison with PITA and ProbLog2 shows the potential of the approach.Comment: To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1402.0565 by other author

O clínico e o cirurgião: esteriótipos e especialidades médicas

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and characterize the professional stereotypes associated with general medicine and surgery among Brazilian medical residents. METHODS: A randomized sample of residents of the General Medicine and Surgery Residence Programs were interviewed and their perceptions and views of general and surgical doctors were compared. RESULTS: The general practitioner was characterized by the residents in general to be principally a sensitive and concerned doctor with a close relationship with the patient; (45%); calm, tranquil, and balanced (27%); with intellectual skills (25%); meticulous and attentive to details (23%); slow to resolve problems and make decisions (22%); and working more with probabilities and hypotheses (20%). The surgeon was considered to be practical and objective (40%); quickly resolving problems (35%); technical with manual skills (23%); omnipotent, arrogant, and domineering (23%); anxious, stressed, nervous, and temperamental (23%); and more decided, secure, and courageous (20%). Only the residents of general medicine attributed the surgeon with less knowledge of medicine and only the surgeons attributed gender characteristics to their own specialty. CONCLUSION: There was considerable similarity in the description of a typical general practitioner and surgeon among the residents in general, regardless of the specialty they had chosen. It was interesting to observe that these stereotypes persist despite the transformations in the history of medicine, i.e. the first physicians (especially regarding the valorization of knowledge) and the first surgeons, so-called "barber surgeons" in Brazil (associated with less knowledge and the performance of high-risk procedures).OBJETIVOS: Investigar e caracterizar entre residentes brasileiros os estereótipos profissionais associados ao médico clínico e ao cirurgião. METODOLOGIA: uma amostra randomizada de residentes dos programas de Clínica Médica e Cirurgia foi entrevistada e suas representações a respeito das duas áreas caracterizadas e comparadas. RESULTADOS: O clínico foi representado, pelos residentes em geral, principalmente como um médico sensível, próximo e preocupado com o paciente (45%); calmo, tranqüilo e equilibrado (27%); com habilidades intelectuais (25%); detalhista e meticuloso (23%); pouco resolutivo e demorado para tomar decisões (22%); trabalha mais com probabilidades e hipóteses (20%). Já o cirurgião foi caracterizado como um médico prático e objetivo (40%); resolutivo e rápido (35%); técnico com habilidades manuais (23%); onipotente, arrogante e prepotente (23%); ansioso, estressado, nervoso, temperamental (23%), mas decidido, seguro e corajoso (20%). Somente os residentes da clínica atribuem ao cirurgião um conhecimento menor da medicina e apenas os cirurgiões atribuem características de gênero à própria especialidade. CONCLUSÃO: Houve muita semelhança na descrição do médico clínico e do médico cirurgião entre os residentes em geral, independentemente da especialidade a qual pertenciam. Interessante observar que, ainda hoje, os estereótipos do clínico e do cirurgião assemelham-se bastante, apesar das transformações ocorridas ao longo do tempo, à tradição dos antigos físicos (especialmente quanto à valorização da mente) e dos cirurgiões-barbeiros (associados a um menor conhecimento e à realização de procedimentos arriscados) na história da medicina

Transfer Line Studies from LINAC4 to the PS Booster: Green Field Option

Linac4 is a normal conducting H- linac, which is currently under study at CERN as upgrade to the present LHC injectors chain in view of intensifying the proton flux available for the CERN accelerator complex and eventually attain LHC ultimate luminosity goals. The new linac is designed to accelerate a 65 mA H- ion beam from 45 keV up to 160 MeV for charge-exchange injection into the CERN Proton Synchrotron Booster, thus overcoming the space charge limitations of the present injection mechanism at 50 MeV, which represent the main obstacle to obtaining higher beam brightness into the PS. A transfer line is being planned to transport the beam from the end of Linac4 to the PSB: a solution corresponding to a siting of the linac in the existing PS South Hall was initially studied [1] but later discarded in favour of a new "green field" arrangement of a whole complex of new machines (including the SPL and PS2) at CERN. The present note outlines this latest layout and presents the results of the relative beam dynamics studies

Tutores, alunos e o curso de graduação em medicina: um círculo virtuoso

BACKGROUND: Mentoring Programs have been developed in several medical schools, but few studies have investigated the mentors'perspective. PURPOSES: To explore mentors'perceptions regarding their experience. METHODS: Mentors at a medical school were invited to participate in an in-depth interview including questions on satisfaction, difficulties, and perception of changes resulting from the program. RESULTS: Mentors' satisfaction and difficulties are strongly associated with students'involvement in the activity. Mentors believe changes observed in students were more related to life issues; for some mentors, there is no recognition or awareness of the program. However, most of the mentors acknowledged important changes in relation to themselves: as teachers, faculty members, and individuals. CONCLUSION: Attendance is crucial for both the mentoring relationship and strengthening of the program. Students involved in the activity motivate mentors in teaching and curriculum development, thereby creating a virtuous circle and benefiting undergraduate medical education as a whole.CONTEXTO: Programas de Mentoring têm sido desenvolvidos em várias escolas médicas, mas poucos estudos investigam essa experiência sob a perspectiva dos mentores. OBJETIVOS: Explorar a percepção de mentores a respeito de suas experiências ao longo do tempo. MÉTODO: Mentores de uma escola médica foram convidados a participar de uma entrevista em profundidade que incluía questões sobre satisfação, dificuldades e percepção de mudanças resultantes do programa. RESULTADOS: A satisfação e as dificuldades relatadas pelos mentores mostraram-se fortemente ao grau de envolvimento dos alunos no programa. Os mentores acreditam que as mudanças observadas nos alunos estão mais relacionadas a questões dessa fase de vida e, para alguns, ainda não há reconhecimento do programa pela instituição. Por outro lado, a maioria dos mentores reconhece importantes mudanças nem si mesmos: como professores, como membros da faculdade e como pessoa. CONCLUSÕES: A adesão dos alunos mostra-se crucial tanto para a relação de Mentoring quanto para a própria consolidação do programa. Alunos envolvidos com a atividade motivam os mentores para o ensino e o aprimoramento do currículo, criando assim um círculo virtuoso, que beneficia o curso e a formação médica como um todo

Study of a spectrometer line for the Linac4 diagnostics movable bench

movable diagnostics bench is currently being designed as part of the Linac4 commissioning plan to characterise the H-beam at the exit of each DTL tank. A spectrometer line has been proposed for installation on the bench to allow performing measurements of the beam energy spread with a slit/dipole/monitor technique. A layout for this diagnostics line is here proposed together with the results of beam dynamics studies to evaluate the resolution achievable and the measurement reach

Transfer Line Studies from LINAC4 to the PS Booster: "South Hall" Option

Linac4 is a new normal conducting H- linac, which is currently under study at CERN as upgrade to the present LHC injectors chain in view of intensifying the proton flux available for the CERN accelerator complex and eventually attain LHC ultimate luminosity goals. The new linac is designed to accelerate a 65 mA H- ion beam from 3 MeV up to 160 MeV for charge-exchange injection into the CERN Proton Synchrotron Booster, thus overcoming the space charge limitations of the present injection mechanism at 50 MeV, which represent the main obstacle to obtaining higher beam brightness into the PS. A new transfer line is also being planned to transport the beam from the end of Linac4 to the PSB and the present paper outlines one of the proposed layouts and gives the status of the beam dynamics studies for this solution

Approximate Inference in Probabilistic Answer Set Programming for Statistical Probabilities

Type 1 statements were introduced by Halpern in 1990 with the goal to represent statistical information about a domain of interest. These are of the form ''x of the elements share the same property''. The recently proposed language PASTA (Probabilistic Answer set programming for STAtistical probabilities) extends Probabilistic Logic Programs under the Distribution Semantics and allows the definition of this type of statements. To perform exact inference, PASTA programs are converted into probabilistic answer set programs under the Credal Semantics. However, this algorithm is infeasible for scenarios when more than a few random variables are involved. Here, we propose several algorithms to perform both conditional and unconditional approximate inference in PASTA programs and test them on different benchmarks. The results show that approximate algorithms scale to hundreds of variables and thus can manage real world domains